The tragic 2014 death of an 89-year-old WWII veteran has recently come
into the spotlight following the release of hidden camera footage that
shows nursing staff failing to administer CPR as he gasped for breath
and pleaded for help, the video even shows the staff laughing at him over
his bed. The footage, which was obtained by NBC and covered in a recent
article from
The Washington Post, was obtained from a secret camera hidden in the man’s room at Northeast
Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation facility, a nursing home on the outskirts
of Atlanta.

Although the man and his family knew of the hidden camera, staff did not.
Following his 2014 death and a review of the video captured that day,
the man’s family decided to sue the facility, which settled the
case for a confidential amount and attempted to have the footage sealed
from public view by court order.

As the footage shows, the man pressed the nurse call button shortly after
4:30 am, and called repeatedly for help. Eight minutes after the initial
call was made a nurse responded, adjusted the man’s bed and inspected
tubes around his neck before turning off the call light and leaving him
alone. After returning to the man’s room an hour after the first
nurse responded, staff found him unconscious. However, almost a full hour
passed before they called 911.

At a deposition over a year after the incident, a nursing supervisor on
duty that morning testified that it looked like the man was gasping for
air, and that it was an emergency situation. She also stated initially
that she and another nurse took turns performing constant CPR, which they
must not stop unless told to do so by a doctor. However, video footage
shows that the nursing supervisor had entered the man’s room before
6:30 am, where she joined another nurse who stood by his bed. The footage
shows a nurse flipping up the man’s sheet and lowering his bed.
Neither nurse performed CPR or appeared to touch his chest.

A third staff member then joined the two nurses, and despite the man not
moving, no attempts to perform CPR were made. Footage from the hidden
camera also revealed that nurses were having difficulty getting the man’s
oxygen machine to work, which is when the nursing supervisor pressed both
hands onto the man’s mattress, rather than his body, and someone
in the room laughed. Shortly after, she then attempted CPR on the man,
but stopped after pumping his chest only several times.

The lawsuit sparked by the footage was ultimately settled confidentially
by the nursing home, which also waged a legal battle to have the video
sealed by a court. It was only released on a judge’s order. The
nurse supervisor and other nursing staff in the video had their licenses
revoked by the Georgia Board of Nursing.

Seeking Justice, Compelling Change

It bears reminding that we are able to discuss this tragic case on a national
scale only because the nursing home was compelled by the court to release
footage of the unacceptable events that took place on the morning of the
victim’s death. Just as many companies attempt to protect their
image and shield themselves from accountability following preventable
injuries and deaths, as well as negligent conduct, this particular nursing
home attempted to keep the alarming footage away from the media and public.

As our firm sees all too often in the cases we handle, including those
involving nursing home abuse, powerful corporations attempting to keep
cases under wraps becomes a major hurdle in the fight for justice. Not
only do these secretive efforts prevent the public from obtaining information
that may influence their decisions to choose a particular nursing home,
or keep their loved ones at a certain facility, they also provide the
opportunity for patterns of negligent and unacceptable conduct to persist
and continue to harm others.

In
nursing home abuse,
personal injury, and other civil cases we handle at Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP,
we understand the work we do is not only important to securing justice
and compensation on behalf of victims and families, but also to compelling
change that protects public safety. By harnessing the power of the civil
justice system and raising awareness, we play an important role in preventing
unacceptable acts of neglect and tragedy, including acts similar to what
it now being discussed in this unfortunate event. This fight for justice
motivates us to succeed in every case.

Cleveland Personal Injury Attorneys

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